Baumhammers Back In Court

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — Eleven years after six people were randomly gunned down because of their ethnicity, Richard Baumhammers was back in court today hoping to get his death sentence reversed — or at least get a new trial.

Baumhammers appeared in court much slimmer than he did at trial in 2001. His lawyer argued that a prosecution rebuttal psychiatrist, Dr. Michael Welner, testified at trial that he diagnosed Baumhammers with a personality disorder, but later told reporters Baumhammers was schizophrenic.

The defense put on an expert who implied that had Welner testified Baumhammers was schizophrenic it could have affected how the jury applied life or death for him.

But the prosecution disagreed saying other experts agreed his mental illness didn’t cloud his view of right and wrong.

Judge Jeffrey Manning who presided at trial, seemed exasperated with the appeals process and said at one point the process “seemed like the endless search for the perfect trial.”

Harold Hayes joined KDKA-TV in August of 1979 as a general assignment reporter and has covered everything from military operations in the Middle East to landmark local court cases.
His overseas coverage includes Operation Desert Shield in Saudi...